There is an obvious solution to America’s goods shortage
Lately, the United States has been experiencing troubling shortages of consumer goods. Everything from groceries and paper supplies to electronics and automobiles are suddenly in short supply.
Shipping disruptions caused by the COVID pandemic — including a record 100 trans-oceanic cargo ships waiting to enter the Port of Los Angeles — are contributing to a crisis that proves America has become far too dependent on imports. The solution is obvious: the U.S. must start manufacturing more goods and materials at home.
There are two root causes of the current goods shortage. The first is that big-box retailers are waiting on shipments of finished products from China and other countries. The second is that U.S. producers are sitting idle, waiting on imported raw materials and supplies needed to manufacture finished goods. They’re simply stuck waiting on overseas deliveries of everything from metals and plastics topharmaceutical ingredients and semiconductors.
It doesn’t have to be this way, however. While some domestic producers remain dependent on China, other U.S. manufacturers are actually thriving right now. That’s because they’ve wisely opted to source all of their materials from domestic American mills, machine shops, and foundries.
A good example is Sherrill Manufacturing in upstate New York — the last U.S. manufacturer of kitchen flatware. Despite the current market disruption, Sherrill’s sales are up almost 20 percent this year — in part because its competitors are still waiting on supplies from China and Vietnam.
Sherrill doesn’t have that problem, though, since it sources all of its materials domestically — including steel from Pittsburgh and Tennessee, and buffing compounds from Ohio and New York.
As a result, Sherrill keeps making kitchenware — and employing dozens of U.S. workers — while big-box retailers wait for deliveries of lower-quality flatware from China.
Similarly, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. experienced troubling shortages of many essential medicines. That’s because America now depends on China and India to supply the ingredients needed to manufacture many generic medicines. In fact, China now controls roughly90 percent of the inputs that U.S. pharmaceutical companies need to make many generic antibiotics and other life-saving medications.
This is an intolerable situation. It’s past time to rebuild all levels of U.S. manufacturing. Doing so can help to reduce a dangerous dependence on adversarial nations like China — and ensure that, in the event of another pandemic, the U.S. doesn’t face more shortages of everything from face masks and medicines to medical equipment.
It’s past time for Washington to rethink this import dependence.
That means embracing tariffs to strengthen key industries and also implementing federal policies to reduce America’s overvalued dollar — something currently making U.S. exports too expensive.
The real story of America’s goods shortage is that, for too long, many policymakers have short-sightedly championed cheap imports as a cure-all for the economy. But that needs to change if Americans are to enjoy safe, ongoing access to the products they rely on every day.